Williams is from New Orleans and has a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She also studied at a number of other institutions including Norfolk Program at Yale. You may have seen reviews of her work in Art in America, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and many others.

These sculptures are unique and have a look, feel that you can spot across the room. I use that description often because when an artist creates something you can look at from across the room? It means they have a style all their own (until people start ripping them off).Williams lives and works in Philadelpia.

Guiramand, a French artists, worked for weather bureau, designing sets and also did a stint in the military. In his late 20s he began to have success as an artist. Curiously his first solo show was in Texas. By the early 1960s he was regularly exhibiting his work.

This single piece, in my opinion, was one of a half a dozen best pieces shown at Expo Chicago 2013. The notion of the simple and the complex, as images and technique, in the same piece is compelling.

Maybe it is a Germanic thing, although Meese is actually Austrian. Maybe I am just not of his generation....but I sort of miss what Meese is trying to get at. Is it humor? Is it parody? I might just not get German humor. Who knew there WAS such a thing?

Maybe it is just the use of mythological imagery. Reading up on Meese didn't help, nor did his website. This may sound like I am being negative toward the artist--far from it. Something hard to figure is a good thing (unless he is some sort of Fascist which I do not think is the case...)

Van Erp's work seems like from some alternate, vaguely empty world. The figures are only partially there in many of the works (as the one below). Again! Pieces not easy to pin down as to purpose or school or any of that nonsense and, again, it is a good thing.

Shown here are works by Grace Munakata, Hadas Tal, Wayne Thiebaud, Pam Sheehan and Paul Wonner. The gallery is one of the half dozen or so "must see" booths at any show they attend and Expo Chicago was no exception.

You can see more on all of these artists at their website. I was concerned about the angle and color of Wayne Thiebaud's painting so I shot a brief video of it. It turns out the video is worse than the image.

We've posted on Fertig's work many times-- these pieces that seem pulled from another time yet also seem thoroughly modern. Hadas Tal is new to Mapanare, however, and these dense, yet subdued in color urban pieces are truly beautiful.

Dine is often called a "pop artist". Pop art uses images from popular culture in the work. I don't always see this in Dine's work (is a heart part of pop culture) but he certainly comes for the era and has similar style to other pop artists.

Pfaff is most known as an installation artist but she also does large scale woodblock prints like the two below. She is also a painter and a sculptor. A few years ago she was the subject of a career retrospective exhibit at New York's Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe Gallery.

I regret not getting a better photo of this piece. I tried to make up for this by posting the video.

Von Bruenchenhein lived and worked in Wisconsin and was a new renaissance man. He worked as a baker but was also a poet, painter, photographer and sculptor. He often used "re-purposed" objects in his work.

Diverse, creative and truly beautiful his work is something anyone in Philadelphia between now and December should be sure to see.